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15 posts all parent bloggers will write

Any writer with a basic knowledge of narrative theory will tell you that there are only seven basic story plots.* Similarly, no matter how original and creative you are as a blogger, the odds are that you will eventually resort to one of a number of standard post types.

Here are 15 of the most common examples of posts written by parent bloggers. Do you recognise any of the following?

1. You know you’re a parent/blogger/parent blogger when …

2. Ten things you will only have done if you’re a parent/blogger/parent blogger.

3. A ‘back to school’ or ‘first day at school’ post, including a photo in full school uniform standing in front of your front door/fireplace/wardrobe.

4. Help! I’ve got writer’s block and here’s a post about the fact that I have writer’s block and how I’m working through it.

5. A post about your disillusionment with blogging and how it’s become too much like a job but, after careful consideration, you’ve decided to keep going anyway.

8. How excited/worried you are about going to your first blogging conference.

9. How encouraged/discouraged you are after coming back from your first blogging conference.

10. A nostalgic post comparing how different/better/worse things were when you were a child versus how they are today.

11. A post about your summer holidays, complete with 518 photos.

12. A blogging tips post.

13. A wry post about how Valentine’s Day, birthdays, anniversaries or Christmas aren’t how they used to be before kids.

14. Sleep deprivation.

15. A post about all the posts a blogger will eventually end up writing.

Oh, hang on …

By my count, I’ve done 11 – although some of these I have written multiple times in slightly different ways. So that gives me at least four more posts to add to my list!

What about you? How many of the above have you written?

* The seven basic plots are: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy and finally Rebirth. Pretty much any book or film can be categorised as a combination of one or more of these.

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Tongue firmly inserted in cheek. Recurring themes are inevitable in any creative medium. As I noted, you can pigeon-hole any film or book by one (or more) of a small number of basic plots, and if you think about it most TV series eventually resort to episodes based on some key staple templates: the day-in-the-life episode, the origin/flashback story, the ‘what if?’ parallel universe story and so on.

We’ve all done at least a few of these, haven’t we? I’ve been blogging much longer than most, so that’s my excuse for having done so many of these and I’m sticking with it! But then there’s a reason why these post types are so common – they’re popular with readers and they’re generally very relevant and relatable to everyone.

Heh, it’s funny how often we stick slavishly to lists of 10, isn’t it? I’m a big fan of doing lists of 7 or 8 items – it focusses the mind on being ruthless about only picking the best things and it also means you have to write less!

*laughing but quickly deletes post on writers block!!* this made me laugh! In 18 months I’ve done at least 7 of these!! Not sure what that says about my creative process. Maybe there’s a blog post in that…?!
Funny post and clever list!

I surprised myself with how many of these I’ve written but then I suppose I have been blogging for quite a while! You know you’ve been blogging for a really long time when you realise you’ve written some of these posts more than once … (Guilty.)

Oh! I know what you’re saying. It does get tedious I agree. But… you forgot about the parents of teenagers and young adults! We still have lots to whinge and talk about so don’t you worry about that my friend! You’ll never be covering the same ground.Like… the first time one of my sons rang me at work to to tell me he wrote off his car. Then when my fourth son rang me tell me that he too wrote his car off… with no insurance. You have a lot more material ahead of you darls! Don’t you worry about being repetitive. There’s lots more stuff heading your way 🙂

I’m sure I do! It’s not so much that it gets tedious – most bloggers successfully add their own individual spin and, of course, none of our experiences are identical – just that these topics come up over and over again both as a reader and a writer. That’s not necessarily a bad thing either, as there’s a reason these posts are popular. My only caveat would be that, as a blogger, when we’re writing about particularly common topics I think it’s good practice to focus on coming up with a slightly take on it if you can, just to make it stand out from the crowd a bit.

Heh, give it time. Most of us get round to doing most of these if we keep going for long enough. And there’s nothing wromg with that – there’s a reason why these types of post are so common and popular.

Ha ha ‘guilty’ of number 3 and 7 very recently. I also did an anniversary one but definitely not ‘wry’. But just as I started cringing at my lack of uniqueness, I remembered 7 and 13 went viral. So maybe I should work through the rest of this list? lol. Love your posts.

I think most of us tick these off over time without ever consciously trying. And it doesn’t really matter if these posts have been done thousands of times before by others – as long as you have something personal to say about it, it will be worth writing.

Back from #wineandboobs (better late than never!) My word a fair few more comments since I originally posted. Just goes to show it struck a chord (in fact I realised a few days after first reading it that this very blog post idea is probably one that’s done before loads too and yes it’s still worth reading as it’s your interpretation). Hope you’re well.

I wonder how many the average blogger has done? I’ve been blogging longer than most so no surprise that my total is at the upper end, but I reckon most parent bloggers who have been going a year or more will have done at least 5 or 6 of these by now.

I got 11 too. I’ll have been blogging for five years tomorrow – how have I failed to achieve the full quota in that time? I’m still an amateur and a massive disappointment to myself and the parent blogging community as a whole! 😉

Actually only done one so far – number 10 (Kind of, in a very specific way – comparing two TV shows!) (Weirdly, though I HAVE done all of the seven story plots on my blog. Overcoming the monster was an epic blog post! *None of this is true.) #PoCoLo

I think it’s really hard to be truly original as there are so many people writing so many different posts. But that’s not to say you can’t put your own original spin with your own personal experiences on to a common post type. Each of us is unique in our own way, after all.

I’ve actually only done two of these posts, but that’s because I tend to keep away from blogging tips and I haven’t been a parent long enough to experience some of them! Will probably catch myself writing them at some point in the future though!

Many of these posts are common for a reason, so that’s not always a bad thing. The themes are often fairly universal, but our take on them is always individual. When I do write a post I know I have seen on other blogs before, I do try to put an original spin on it, though, whether it is with my experiences or my approach to the way the post is written. It’s always nice to come up with something a little bit different for the reader rather than rehashing the same old same old.

Talk about click-bait title. 😉 Honestly, so far in my blogging journey, I’ve done two of the above. I’m sure in the future I’ll complete the list! They are topics that people want to write and evidently, topics that people want to read. Everyone likes to compare experiences, share (sometimes unhelpful) tips and know they’re not alone in their struggles! Ray xx

There’s a point to all these common posts and a reason they are so popular with both writers and readers. It *is* interesting to compare notes, and I’m always happy to read one of these posts as long as it’s well written and preferably a bit different to the norm.

I’m not a parent, so I haven’t done the child related ones (although I have read them all on various blogs) but I think I have done all of the others! We are a predictable lot it seems lol. #TheList
Debbie

Well, not so much predictable as there are recurring themes that tend to pop up repeatedly. It’s just the same as with TV shows – if they run for long enough, there are certain staple formula episodes they will eventually do: the day in the life episode, the alternate reality episode etc.

None of these! I don’t see blogging as a job, & I don’t think that ANYONE is interested in my views on blogging, why I blog, how I blog etc. I just blog when I have something to say, & when I feel like it. It’s all just writing practice, really.

I think that’s true for many of us, and writing these posts is nothing to do with whether you regard blogging as a job. No one sets out to write common or cliched posts, but if we keep at it for long enough it’s pretty much inevitable that we will end up doing some of them eventually. And that’s not exactly a bad thing either – these posts are all easy to relate to and touch on fairly universal things for parents. The list is intended as a tongue-in-cheek look at posts many of us commonly come across – it’s certainly not meant in a judging way (not least because I’ve written most of them myself!)

Heh, they happen when they happen. This isn’t a list of ‘must do’ posts for parent bloggers, nor is it a list of posts to avoid – it just is what it is and most of us tend to accumulate these over time without even trying!

Hah. I’ve done 3 (although it’s not the full uniform and I took it in the library after school), started 4 (but couldn’t get past the first paragraph because I had writer’s block), planning to write 8 AND 9 (Have my heart set on going to Blogfest 2015), have written 12, and while I haven’t written a post dedicated to sleep deprivation yet it’s certainly reared its head in a couple of other posts. So not too bad. And no, I’m not feverishly scribbling down the other ideas for those days when the writer’s block returns. Nope. Definitely not. #brilliantblogposts

I don’t think there’s necessarily anything wrong with popular or generic posts – they become generic for a good reason – but I think it’s good to always try to take an original approach to them and to say something personal and dofferent about them, rather than just trotting out the same as thousands of others have already done.

We’ve only been in Thatcham eight years but it’s obvious from all the new housing and other amenities how much it has grown over the last 20 years or so – the Vodafone effect. We like it here – one of the reasons we ended up here was because we wanted to be within walking distance of shops, schools etc.

My three clear memories of then and now are walking along the tow path of the canal to Newbury. In those days, all of the locks on the canal were broken. Also, the train station used to be two platforms. Nowadays, there are waiting rooms, a ticket office and even a bridge to walk over.

But perhaps my biggest surprise was seeing the local football club on a field that I once got caught picking corn on the cob from. The farmer really wasn’t that pleased!

Haha, I got to number eleven before I found one I had written, and then there was just one more. Maybe I’m just a crap blogger?! I’m sure I will get to a lot of these one day, especially the blogging conference one’s! #sharewithme

Too funny! I’ve only written 3 blog articles so far, and I’m already seeing similarities between them and your list! A “Why I’m Blogging” post, which might could go with #5, a kind of milestones post which should be on your list if it doesn’t just go under #3, but also an article looking at bedsharing research which I don’t think is on the list! 🙂 Fun read.

Funny, in nearly nine years I’ve never written a post about writer’s block. I guess I’m lucky that I’ve always had a decent flow of ideas to keep me going at a rate I’m happy writing at. And the odd parody song … 🙂

Spot on! Cringe. I am so embarrassed to say I’ve thought about or written all of these post. Damn, so predictable. Great post though. I think you’ve crawled inside my blogging schedule! #thethruthabout

The reality is that there are so many bloggers out there that there are very few truly original ideas – but how we approach writing our own versions of these posts can be as unique as we want them to be.

Well it certainly looks like lots of us are guilty of some of these purely from the vast number of comments on this post. It took me about half an hour to read them all! I’ve done 2 or 3, but I wouldn’t have regarded myself as a parent blogger until recently. Looks like I have plenty more to do!

Brilliant Tim you got us all here for sure. I think I am guilty of all of these minus writers block I have far too much to ever stop writing so far. hahaha Have a great week. Thank you so much for linking up to Share With Me #sharewithme

Heh, it’s not so much a matter of guilt – there’s nothing wrong with writing these posts but, as with any post, it’s worth thinking how you can personalise your own version of these to make them interesting for readers who may have seen dozens of similar posts already.

Woefully lacking on most points. That first title really grates on me, so I won’t be writing that one!
Also, lacking in inspiration and motivation, so I’ve not written anything for ages. But I’ll not be writing about my writers block! Ha! What a terrible blogger I am 🙂 🙂